Before I commit to prettying up the terrain on this one, I wanna get peoples feedback on the features.



Meant for 1v1, red are watchtowers, blue are curtains. Conceptually based on Steppes of War, but with longer games in mind. Features include...

-Moderately short rush distance.

-The walkable shallow water in the center is unbuildable to deter Terran bunker/fortress contains. However, the very small raised grounds as still buildable with enough space for Creep Tumors, Radar Towers, Pylons, and Missile Turrets in some locations. (Zerg players are still able to creep the entire middle, Protoss players can still make proxies, etc.)

-The small curtain cliffs on the side of the naturals deter Terran Siege Tank turtling, by making it necessary for them to have an air spotter on most sides of their base anyways. It also provides a fairly standard proxy area to discourage players from not scouting, and a space for cliff walkers to enter the natural.

-The thirds at 3 and 9 contain two spots to place bases, one touches 3 geysers and the other only touches 1 but has twice as many mineral patches. A tactical decision over which to grab when players grab the third must be based on whether the player needs more minerals or gas, and the fact that the gas expo is harder to defend.

-The golds third at 12 and 6 can be seen by the top and bottom watchtowers, so they're harder to control than the other thirds.

-Islands that are easy to defend against ground armies, but very difficult to defend against drops.

I pretty much like the set up, but maybe a bit too many resources for a 1n1? Optimally, 2-3 normal exes and 1 golden per player should be enough, at least that is my opinion.
EDIT: it rather reminded me of that 4 players desert map.. Arid Wastes.

Eh, it has one more base per player than Lost Temple/Metalopolis. I could take away the island? Or give them fewer resources?

Hmm. It's actually kind of difficult to see details without actually having the map open in the editor. Do you mind attaching it?

Also, the mains look a touch small. In general, there should be enough room for a terran player to place about fifteen production structures with addons and decent movement space between them, as well as tech and about twenty supply depots. I know it sounds like a lot, but it will happen and players expect to have enough room.

On second thought, though, that could just be another aspect of the gameplay of this map - expand or you don't have enough room to build. Hmmmmmm.

So yeah, maybe extend the mains, attach the map please, and definitely remove the islands - did you notice they cross the boundaries on the ends? Some of the mineral fields are even beyond the yellow boundary, which means you can't build turrets behind them.

I think the geysers should be on both sides of the minerals in the nats for easier mining.

The yellow bounds are just have far you can move the camera. Many of the Blizzard maps have mins outside the yellow but inside the blue. The mains are *fairly* large, but here is the unfinished map.

http://www.mediafire.com/?6eaajp58m7km7id

Well, whaddya know. It's true.

Lol computers. I love FFAs. On another note, the mains are definitely too small for any lengthy game. If a terran loses simply because he can't fit enough rax or ports or factories in his base, that's bad. Same thing with toss and gateways. The only race that doesn't lose to small mains is zerg, so this map leans toward them pretty heavily.

It can easily fit 10 gateways, so... No.

Very few people who are any good build over 4 of any unit producing structure, and in a lengthy game very few people build only in their main. (You will notice the choke is actually outside of the natural)

I like the colors. They look nice.

I think this looks pretty good... When can we dive into playing on it a bit?

Here is how far I finished it. I didn't open it since the Beta, so no promises. (Maps screw up when edited now.)

http://www.mediafire.com/?93bc3gb5sh0hq6b